Seat UK appoints national fleet and business sales manager

Seat UK has appointed Philip Allan as its new national fleet and business sales manager as it seeks to sustain its growth in the UK’s fleet sector.

Allan served as national fleet sales manager at Nissan before moving to Renault UK as head of leasing.

Now, reporting to Seat UK’s head of fleet, Steve Robertson, Allan will work to ensure the latest additions to the carmaker’s line-up succeed as fleet favourites.

Steve Robertson, head of fleet and business sales at Seat UK, said: “The wealth of experience Philip brings with him from his time at both Nissan and Renault, particularly in leasing and contract hire, will be a great asset as we aim to continue our upward sales trajectory and achieve our ultimate goal of becoming a fleet manufacturer of choice.”

Allan’s appointment follows a major expansion and restructuring of the Seat fleet and business sales operation, which has taken place over a period of months.

The new enlarged team now has a specialist sales manager dedicated to so-called ‘blue light’, taxi, chauffeur and conversion markets; a key account manager who focuses on larger end user fleets operating 500+ vehicles; and a fleet aftersales manager to help ensure the highest levels of care for business customers.

Meanwhile, Seats’s Fleet Business Centre, which serves as an extension of the field sales team and network of specialist fleet dealers, offers phone and online for customers.

Seat will be targeting its eighth year of uninterrupted growth this year, after breaking through the 50,000 sales barrier for the first time.

Sales were up 18% to 53,512, close behind Honda and Mini, while sales in January 2015 put the firm ahead of the two rival brands.

Retail sales in 2015 were up nearly 25% to 29,901 and fleet sales leapt 11% to 23,611.

To maintain momentum, a near corporate identify is to be rolled out across the network, which will be backed by a focus on winning customer praise after a two-year drubbing in the Auto Express Driver Power customer satisfaction poll.

Seat was placed bottom, leading the manufacturer to claim it had 'let our dealers down'.

Rather than point the finger at dealers, Seat says it hasn't engaged with them enough and will make that a priority in the coming years.